A professor of religion and politics at St Andrews University, Mario Aguilar, received a letter from Rome, via the Vatican embassy in London, saying that the invitation to the Pope was being considered.

Professor Mario Aguilar have met on several occasion with the Holy Father, he wrote the Pope’s biography in 2014. He told Sunday Times “My understanding is that Pope Francis is interested and has put [the event] on his agenda of activities and that further arrangements will be discussed,”, “I have had an indication that his visit is being considered. If he agrees to come, it will be in a private capacity in response to an academic invitation. It would not be a pastoral visit.”

If Pope Francis should engage in a trip to Scotland it will mark another Pontiff’s visit to Scotland after Pope Benedict XVI’s visit there in 2010.